When Hurricane Helene struck Western North Carolina in September 2024, Emma Churchman and her husband Jeff found themselves trapped atop a mountain transformed into a flood zone. For 72 hours, they had no way to tell the outside world if they were alive or dead.

After bushwhacking three miles down their mountain, they discovered the true devastation in Gerton, their rural community of 301 people. Within days, lawlessness emerged and life became like the Wild West. 

As Emma stepped into the role of trauma chaplain, offering solace to people who hadn't yet realized they were traumatized, she faced her own devastating loss – the death of her fourth immediate family member to suicide. While processing multiple traumas, she continued serving others alongside her husband Jeff, who became vital in communications and securing supplies, technology.

Together with their neighbors – Erik, a firefighter, and Kate, a botanist and sawyer – they witnessed their community split into distinct camps: Evacuees, Helpers, Donors, Preppers, Looters, and Homesteaders. 

Through forty days and forty nights, this powerful memoir chronicles how a community stripped of power, cell service, and internet created their own solutions. It's a sometimes funny, often heartwarming testament to what's possible when people have no choice but to come together, transcending social, political, economic, religious, and geological differences to find their way from fear to fierce Love.